Religion(s) of the founding fathers of the US

[Jaymes]

There's a lot of rhetoric from every side on this. Is there any proof, not just quotes, of who was and was not Christian/deist/etc?

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Is there any reason whatsoever to deem it important?

 

[Jaymes]

I think it's important to know what the truth is so that people don't use the names of the founding fathers to further their own causes.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

People who legitimately, or illegitimately, "use the names of the founding fathers to further their own causes" are engaging in argumentum ad verecundiam irrespective of the extent to which they adhere to or revise history. To argue the history simply gives credibility to a fallacious argument.

 

[Jaymes]

And it doesn't make it any less irritating. I'd like to see if anyone has any evidence one way or the other for what religion(s) the founding fathers did or didn't follow.

 

[Majikthise]

Maybe this will help?

http://www.geocities.com/peterroberts.geo/Relig-Politics/Intro.html

When asked why the Constitution did not mention god, Alexander Hamilton is rumored to have answered, "We forgot."

 

[Shadow Wolf]

My government swore up and down that the founding fathers were Christian, and the phrase "freedom of religion," actually only applies to the Christian religion. I would have argued that if it wouldn't have ment an automatic F in a required class.

 

[Majikthise]

Extortion, wonderful.

 

[JerryL]

Mostly diests with a good number of athiests and Christians thrown into the mix.

 

[Dayv]

I have to agree with Deut, what does it matter? Just because the founders of our nation were or weren't Christian, don't you think we should be able to make our own decisions and figure out what true freedom is. I'm sure some of the founding fathers had slaves, but no one seems to be arguing that view.

 

[cmotdibbler]

Many of the hard core fundies imply that the religious beliefs of the founding fathers would approve of a fundamentalist agenda. For me, showing that many of the FF were deist or atheists is hugely important. Otherwise, I could care less what George Washington did with his Sundays. Blacks were considered three-fifths human and women could not vote, should we go back to that?

 

[Ronald]

Truth! Our founders were foe the most part, escaping mandatory religeon.
They said NO! to this in our constitution.
Some of our current generation, even though they deny it, would have us to all be Christian.
I am for keeping our freedom to chose. I personally chose "The Way".

 

[JerryL]

I have to agree with Deut, what does it matter? Just because the founders of our nation were or weren't Christian, don't you think we should be able to make our own decisions and figure out what true freedom is. I'm sure some of the founding fathers had slaves, but no one seems to be arguing that view.

Perhaps I'm biased, but I don't think it's the athiest camp that first raised this. I think that the Christians started asserting that we shouldn't take "under God" out of the pledge because that's how it was originally made (actualy, it was added in the 50s), and that non-Christians were destroying a nation founded on Christianity (which is the opposite of what the Treaty of Tripoli, signed by founding father and president Adams, said).